events

Featuring: Maya Ackerman, PhD
100 Women in AI | CEO & Co-Founder, WaveAI | Professor of Computer Science, Santa Clara University

Maya Ackerman, PhD, is a leading expert in generative AI. She is the CEO and Co-Founder of WaveAI, one of the first generative AI startups, which has served millions across the globe. A Professor of Computer Science at Santa Clara University, she has authored more than 50 peer-reviewed publications and is an internationally sought-after speaker, having given talks at Oxford, Google, the United Nations, Stanford, and Microsoft.

Her work has been featured in Forbes, NPR, Fortune, NBC News, and other major outlets. She is the author of Creative Machines: AI, Art & Us (Wiley, Oct. 2025), a powerful exploration of how artificial intelligence is reshaping creativity and what that means for the future of humanity. She has been named among 100 Women in AI, recognized as a Billboard Executive Honoree, and named a Woman of Influence by the Silicon Valley Business Journal.

Location: DTC: 198 McAllister St - Room 213

Featuring: Babak Hodjat, PhD
Chief AI Officer, Cognizant

Babak Hodjat is the Chief AI Officer at Cognizant Technologies. He is a longtime entrepreneur and the former Co-Founder and CEO of Sentient, where he was responsible for the core technology behind what became one of the world’s largest distributed AI systems. Babak was also the founder of Sentient Investment Management, one of the world’s first AI-driven hedge funds.

Babak is a serial entrepreneur who has started a number of Silicon Valley companies as a principal inventor and technologist and has 25 granted or pending patents to his name. He is also the primary inventor of Dejima’s patented agent-oriented technology, which was applied to intelligent interfaces for mobile and enterprise computing and contributed to the technology behind Apple’s Siri.

In this webinar, he will explore the emerging world of multi-agent AI systems and demonstrate how intelligent networks of AI agents can be designed and scaled, including a look at Neuro SAN, an open-source framework for prototyping and scaling systems of agent networks.

This workshop will show students how to use SkillScan, ChatGPT Edu, and Hiration to better understand their strengths, explore career opportunities, and improve their resumes.

During the workshop, students will learn the difference between regular ChatGPT and Custom GPTs, build their own AI career assistant, upload their resume and SkillScan results, explore possible career paths and job opportunities, receive resume feedback, and compare recommendations from ChatGPT Edu and Hiration.

By the end of the workshop, students should leave with their own Custom GPT, a completed SkillScan assessment, a clearer career profile, resume feedback from two different tools, and resources they can continue using after the workshop.

Description: This course explores the critical analysis of generative AI to support responsible use of this technology. Learn how AI models are trained and why misinformation and biases may occur in AI-generated content. Develop strategies to analyze AI outputs and assess AI tools for quality and ethical considerations. Participants will be expected to engage in the evaluation process through collaborative, hands-on activities and reflective discussions.

This course is an elective that counts toward receiving a digital badge for the AI Literacy Education Program.   

Objectives: In this course, you will learn to:  

• Describe how AI models are trained on data
• Summarize how misinformation and biases occur from training data
• Identify types of biases that arise in AI outputs
• Critically analyze AI outputs for accuracy and potential biases
• Explain how to critically evaluate AI tools

Duration: 60 minutes

Experience Level: Basic familiarity with generative AI chatbots like Microsoft Copilot or ChatGPT

Description: This course explores the critical analysis of generative AI to support responsible use of this technology. Learn how AI models are trained and why misinformation and biases may occur in AI-generated content. Develop strategies to analyze AI outputs and assess AI tools for quality and ethical considerations. Participants will be expected to engage in the evaluation process through collaborative, hands-on activities and reflective discussions.

This course is an elective that counts toward receiving a digital badge for the AI Literacy Education Program.   

Objectives: In this course, you will learn to:  

• Describe how AI models are trained on data
• Summarize how misinformation and biases occur from training data
• Identify types of biases that arise in AI outputs
• Critically analyze AI outputs for accuracy and potential biases
• Explain how to critically evaluate AI tools

Duration: 60 minutes

Experience Level: Basic familiarity with generative AI chatbots like Microsoft Copilot or ChatGPT

Description: This course offers a focused exploration of prompting and iteration strategies for generative AI chatbots. Through collaborative, hands-on activities and interactive exercises, participants will learn to write clear, effective prompts, apply refinement techniques, and assess AI-generated outputs for accuracy and relevance to achieve more reliable and useful results in a variety of practical contexts.

This course is required to receive a digital badge for the AI Literacy Education Program.

Objectives: In this course, you will learn to: 

• Write effective prompts to get accurate and useful results from AI tools
• Refine and improve AI outputs using practical feedback and iteration techniques
• Evaluate AI-generated content to determine its accuracy and relevance to your needs

Duration: 60 minutes

Experience Level: Basic familiarity with generative AI chatbots like Microsoft Copilot or ChatGPT